Cation Mobilities, Including Isotope Effects, for Electromigration in Molten Mixtures of Potassium and Rubidium Nitrate
Abstract Electromigration of cations has been studied in molten KNO3 -RbNO 3 mixtures as a function of concentration (11 -94 mole % RbNO3 , about 380 °C) and temperature (about 10 mole % RbNO3 , 378 -560 °C). The mobility of K+ is slightly larger than that of Rb+ at all concentrations, the difference being about 3% in KNO3 -rich and 2% in RbNO3 -rich mictures. Neither for potassium nor for rubidium is the isotope effected affected much by the composition of the melt, although there is a tendency that the isotope effect for rubidium is somewhat larger in mixtures than in pure salts. Both isotope effects have the same temperature dependence in the investigated mixture as in the pure salts. The isotope effects for potassium and rubidium have also been determined for ternary NaNO3 -KNO3 -RbNO3 mixtures containing about 5 mole percent of NaNO3 and of RbNO3 . For comparison, a study of the mass effect for potassium ions in NaNO3 -KNO3 is also reported.